Rolls-Royce said today in a press announcement that it will supply water jets for three wind farm support vessels, (one 24-meter and two 26-meter aluminum catamarans) to be built by South Boats IOW for the offshore wind transfer vessel operator Seacat Services.Rolls-Royce labeled the contract as “one of the biggest orders made for wind farm workboats,” and all three newbuilds will feature two Rolls-Royce 56A3 stainless steel water jets as well as Rolls-Royce’s new compact control system tailored to suit owners’ requirements and reduce build/installation times.The new wind farm workboats will include MTU 12V 2000 engines which will power the catamarans to speeds of up to 30 knots. Once in operation, the catamarans will be used for people and cargo transfers to the growing number of offshore wind farms around the coast of Europe.When factoring the water jets’ properties into the vessels’ overall design, the propulsion system contributes a safety elemen... [More]

DP3 is a new offshore vessel positioning technology standard set by IMO that will enable a couple of new Farstad offshore vessels on the stocks in Norway to work safely in the most demanding and potentially dangerous situations using systems equipment provided by Rolls Royce.Basically, to maintain an accurate position determined mainly by satellite navigation system (anchoring is not in itself precise enough) an offshore vessel needs to be equipped with propulsors and thrusters controlled automatically by a dynamic positioning (DP) system in such a way as to oppose the resultant force of wind, waves, tides and currents.
Dynamic positioning, propulsion & thruster schematic: Courtesy of Rolls-Royce
Deep-water drilling for oil or gas (common now as shallower resources deplete) is an operation that often carries with it the need for jack-ups, construction and support vessels to operate in extremely demanding situations where any loss of position might result in fatal accidents, severe ... [More]

Rolls-Royce has won a contract to supply its Promas Lite propulsion system to the Norwegian ship owner Hurtigruten for their cruise ship MV Richard With. Propeller efficiency improvement for the ship is estimated to be between 11-14 per cent at 15 knots.
MV Richard With: Photo courtesy the owners
Promas Lite is a version of the Rolls-Royce Promas integrated propeller and rudder system which is designed specifically for vessels already in service. It is well known that with advances in propeller design, propeller blade changes, or the fitting of new propellers, can have a significant effect on propulsive efficiency, fuel consumption and, therefore, emissions. With Promas Lite these improvements can be maximised, as the propeller and rudder are treated as a complete system, and further increases in efficiency can be achieved with improved manoeuvrability for only a small increase in cost. First, extensive modelling work is carried out at the Rolls-Royce Hydrodynamic Research Centre in Sw... [More]

Rolls-Royce Plc has delivered the first of a revolutionary new design of cargo ship which will reduce CO2 emissions by up to 40 per cent, thanks to a combination of cutting edge marine technology, including a wave-piercing bow and an engine powered by natural gas, whereby the gas is stored as liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The first Rolls-Royce Environship, of NVC 401 LNG design, the Eidsvaag Pioner, has been delivered to Norwegian company Eidsvaag AS this week, and will soon enter service on a year-round schedule delivering feed to numerous fish farms around the Norwegian coast.
The Environship, which can be adapted for different ship types, incorporates a range of Rolls-Royce technologies to deliver efficiency savings for ship owners. When compared to similar sized diesel powered ships, the CO2 reduction can be up to 40 per cent.
Neil Gilliver, Rolls-Royce, President - Merchant, said: "The Environship has now moved from concept to reality with the successful delivery of the first ship... [More]

Recently Olympic Shipping has installed the first of Rolls-Royce newly-developed permanent magnet tunnel thrusters into the hull of the OLYMPIC OCTOPUS, a Rolls-Royce designed UT 712 L multifunctional anchor-handling vessel (AHTS).
The ship is built to a classic offshore industry design. Her type classification UT 712 has been around since the 1980s, and is still regarded as a solid workhorse in international waters. Today’s L edition has a new hull design, with a bulbous bow, and meets the requirements for Ice-C and Clean. The design allows for flexibility in the choice of onboard equipment. This flexibility is particularly well exploited in the UT 712 L vessel.
The new thruster design concept is based on a permanent magnet motor in a rim, which drives the propeller in the centre and also frees up space directly above the thruster where traditional tunnel thruster motors are located, making room available for other equipment or alternative use. Compared to tradition... [More]

Norwegian shipping company Fjord Line's two new international cruise ferries will be powered solely by environmentally friendly liquefied natural gas (LNG) instead of the more polluting heavy fuel oil.
When MS Stavangerfjord is put in operation in April this year, it will be the first and largest cruise ferry in the world to sail with a "single LNG engine," thus using the, for the time being, cleanest fuel available. "In this way Fjord Line will meet the new, stricter standards for sulfur content in fuels long before the deadline in 2015," says CEO Ingvald Fardal.
Going green: MS Stavangerfjord will be the first cruise ferry in the world to be powered exclusively by natural gas (LNG).
Fjord Line has two new cruise ferries under construction at Bergen Group Fosen. When both are in service, travelers will be offered daily departures all year round on the routes between Bergen, Stavanger and Hirtshals, and between Hirtshals and Langesund. Now these will also be the "gr... [More]

Development of a mini-water jet propulsion system with a diameter of just 100 millimetres to quietly propel an unmanned surface craft on remotely controlled intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, is the daunting challenge to be tackled by Rolls-Royce as they participate in a US Government funded project led by Candent Technologies Inc.
Image credit: US Navy
Candent Technologies, based in Greenfield, Indiana, was selected for the award of a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase I contract from the U.S. Navy. This Phase I program of the contract is the first step in the development of a high efficiency heavy fuel propulsion system for a small surface unmanned craft (volatile fuels like gasoline, hydrogen, propane, or methanol not permitted).The project, known as MUSCL (the US Navy’s Modular Unmanned Surface Craft Littoral) is to develop an X-class unmanned surface vessel, whose purpose is to reduce risk to manned forces and perform tedious and rep... [More]

A detailed knowledge of how a vessel’s power and propulsion systems are operating gives confidence for continued safe operation. It can also help control costs and extend times between overhauls: precisely the aims of Rolls-Royce Marine’s HEMOS advanced condition monitoring system, the maritime equivalent of similar monitoring systems in the civil aircraft sector.A few years ago Rolls-Royce fitted a prototype of ‘HEMOS’ (acronym for ‘Health & Monitoring System’) to Farstad Shipping’s offshore platform supply vessel Far Searcher, then more recently, based upon experience gained, they fitted a commercial version to the same company’s offshore anchor handler Far Scorpion.
OSV 'Far Searcher': Photo courtesy of Farstad Shipping
Advanced Condition Monitoring with HEMOSHEMOS has the ability to record and analyse data from as many as a 'Gee Whiz' 4,500 points on board Far Scorpion as well as transmit it to shore for detailed a... [More]

Rolls-Royce is specified as gas turbine supplier for the Republic of Korea Navy’s new Incheon Class (FFX Batch II) frigate program, marking a first supply of the MT30 to an Asian Navy: The Incheon was built at HHI and is scheduled to be commissioned in summer 2013. Eight ships are planned for the FFX class and will be built at HHI and DSME. A further 18 ships are projected to enter service by 2020 to replace the Po Hang and Dong Hae classes. The frigate of 2,300 displacement has an LOA of 374 ft (114 m). The propulsion system is a two shaft CODAG arrangement with a single MT 30 gas turbine that delivers up to 36MW of power and diesel engines provide for lower power requirements. The maximum speed is 30 kn and cruising speed is 18 kn giving a range of approximately 4,500 nm. [More]